Gundam R
by Lyra Kamiya
Summary: A.C. 338. In times of peace and radical new cultures, old technology has began to resurface... --Gundam Racer--
1. Star Shower

After Colony: 338. In the years of peace under the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and the work of the Preventers, the Colonies have managed to spread in to Mercury and more recently out as far as Saturn. However, the further they are from Earth, the more radical the new cultures become. In the outer Colonies, though natural reproduction exists once more, there are many secret genetic testing facilities. Occasionally, one of their enhanced humans will escape, or be so radically unexpected that they are cast into orphanages. These and other rebellious teens have begun holding illegal races using vehicles they call Hoverbikes and Racesuits. These Racesuits bear a striking resemblance to unarmed renditions of the Mobile Suits that had been all destroyed by a hundred years earlier. All, but one.

"Well, that ought to just about do it…" Lynna Long said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, closing the hatch of a Hoverbike.

"Thank you… wow, they should make you a saint or something, with the miracles you pull off," Eri Koken, one of her regular customers, grinned.

"After I was back out of jail. Most these parts are banned and you're breaking half the League's rules with the 'extra features'."

"They're just as legal as the races, Ly. I'm not in the League; none of us are, remember? Every track they tried to build out here got hit by an asteroid or was torn apart by Jupiter's gravity."

"So you endanger the colony with your erratic wipeouts instead?" she smirked and pointed to a dent she'd attempted to remove many times before "Anyway, any baka with a wrench and a hammer could pull off half the repairs and installations you have me do," Ly sighed. "They're simply just not that hard."

"Well, that must make me a major baka, because I can't do anything with any vehicles except win races."

"You may be a baka… but at least you're my baka," Ly grinned as Eri kissed her, as if on cue. "You know… sometimes I think you only have me do these repairs so you can see me sweat…"

"No… but it makes a nice ulterior motive…"

"I think, I'm going, to be sick. How about you, Mayonaka?"

Ly took her attention away from her previous matters and glared at the girl who'd just wandered in. "Niban, what do you want?"

"Some new parts! And he's here… because he's here, I think," she replied, adjusting her glasses and smiling what could only be called insanely at the others.

"I'm here because I think I left my other hat here…" Mayonaka grumbled, his permanently icy glare falling upon Ly and Eri. He tilted his head up and sniffed the air lightly, then wandered off around the corner.

"Watch the HB over there! Sean just got a new paintjob on it!" Eri called after him.

"If my hat is near it then I don't honestly care what happens to his damned bike," came a snarled response.

"That's why I don't like you two using this as a garage. I can't afford it if another customer's HB gets damaged."

"I don't need to use this as a garage," Niban interrupted, still grinning, and fished a bag of ginger snaps out of one of her many pockets. "I have my own. Several. And a HB in each."

"Yes, yes, we know."

"Unlike us, you're rich."

Ruth "Niban" Winner was the last of her family line, and thus was just about the richest person in the solar system. She was also, however, a disgrace to her family line, as she had gained her nickname by never getting better than second place.

"Lynna!" the harsh voice of her father suddenly barked over the intercom. "Phone! It's that Zeus guy. Says it's urgent!" Ly sighed and hit the button on the vidphone located on the wall.

"Speak," she sighed.

Eri sighed and leaned against the wall beside the phone. "Sean… Everything's always 'urgent' with-" he was cut off by a look from Ly.

"Not you, him," she said, motioning toward the phone. A very bewildered Sean stared back at her for a moment, then started talking hastily.

"I just found this sweet race suit! It was hidden in the asteroid belt… miracle the things not beat up by now. I'm figuring, it must be Gundanium or something. Anyway, I need you to come out here and tow it in for me, want to see if you can fix it up."

"Make you a deal. You tow it; I fix it and not report that you've stolen a race suit, unless it appears on news as missing. You don't tell anyone who fixed it. Got it?"

"I DIDN'T STEAL IT! This thing's gotta be over a hundred years old… Eri's there, right? He'll believe me!"

"I believe you… I just don't know why you'd want a suit that old," he rolled his eyes, stepping into view of the phone.

"Oh, you'll see. I'll have it there by morning, 'kay? Out."

"Danged friendly rivals, they always expect you to stick up for them…"

"This is going to be interesting…" Ly mumbled, before the room grew eerily silent.

"So, um… you got the parts I need?"

"Oh, right. Follow me, Niban."

Niban nodded in response and followed close behind Ly, stuffing an empty bag of ginger snaps into one pocket and digging into another to search for more. Instead, she pulled out a black hat that she stared at blankly for a moment. Two and two met in her mind and she blinked quickly before calling out behind her, "Mayo-kun! This what you lost?"

Mayonaka quickly and glaringly appeared beside her, sniffed the hat, grabbed it from her and switched it as quickly as possible with the other one. Then he put the old hat into his overly baggy black pants. "Yes."

"I figured halfway through that it was. Want some??" she asked randomly, holding up her new bag of ginger snaps.

"Uh… no."

"Good, cause they're MINE!" she grinned, laughing evilly, then smiled, adjusted her glasses, and tightened the braid she had tied around her head.

"Interesting…" Ly said sarcastically, leaning against a large box. "Reminds me, Mayonaka, when was the last time you got your hair cut? I can't even see your ears…" he snarled at her, causing her to jump and open the box, glancing back cautiously. "On to other business! What are you after, Niban?"

**********

"So this is the suit you were in such a hubbub over?"

"It looks like it would be fast, you have to admit that Ly."

"I will admit that, Eri, but it's also a very confusing item. I mean, what's with the wings? It looks like it can transform into a plane, and I don't know if that's allowed. That there is *clearly* a sword and we're not supposed to have weapons on the Racers anyway, let alone obvious ones," she said, raising her voice on the last part such that Sean grinned innocently knowing she was referring to him.

"I saw the error in my ways! I haven't attacked another racer since!"

"Since we paid your parole…" Ly corrected.

"With my prize money… may I remind you that even with cheating you still didn't win that one?" Eri added. They all went silent and continued inspecting the surprisingly low damaged suit.

"Hmm… I'm going to call Mayonaka… this control system could use some tinkering… I only do engineer work, not computer programming, remember that."

"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed…" Sean complained. "Not that we're even sure it was her bed…" Two icy glares met their accuser swiftly. "Hey, you both are pissed off. Ok. I'm being quiet now."

**********

A short time later, Mayonaka was hard at work, typing on some number of keyboards with many wires tangled around him. The other four were staring over his shoulder when they could, in between replacing parts and cleaning worn out joints. Suddenly the constant racket of typing stopped, leaving a strange silence in the room. "I think there's something you all should see…" he said finally, the other rushing over as he started the sentence. "This was no Racesuit. It was a tool of war… a Mobile suit, known as a Gundam," he said, scanning his finger down the monitor to point out the information. "What's more…" he tapped a button and detailed blueprints appeared on the screen. A chorus of 'wow's echoed behind him.

"That'll make the repairs a lot simpler…"

"But look at this…" he pressed the button again, and another page of blue prints appeared… but there were variations in the second design. A third, fourth, and fifth design were displayed. "Five of them. All with different weapons, different capabilities… but all capable of destroying a good-sized Colony. It says they were all ordered to be destroyed," he displayed the original page again, "but the pilot of this one hid his instead of destroying it."

"Who was it, anyone we'd have heard of?"

Mayonaka held up a finger in a wait motion, and typed a bit. "Gundam Wing Zero. Pilot 'Heero Yuy'."

"The Heero Yuy? Who was King, and who's great grandson and latest successor just went missing?"

"It doesn't say."

"…We'll build them," Ly whispered. "I've always wanted a challenge like this… I'll rebuild them, without the weapons, and make them faster. They'll be the best Racesuits around!"

"Yeah!"

"But… how will we afford it?"

"This one's mine!" Sean said suddenly. "I found it, its mine!"

"Cheapskate… I'll pay for what I can of one with prize money… if I can have that one?"

"I can pay for all remaining expenses. I am the richest girl in the solar system, after all," Ni smiled. "But only if it's only the 5 of us. Only the best for my friends, and nothing for anyone else that can beat me in a race."

The others stared, shocked for a moment, then nodded. "It's settled then. Mayonaka, get us some hardcopies of those blueprints. Tomorrow, we start building!"

"YEAH!!!"

"Wait. Tomorrow's the biggest race of the year."

"Oh. Right. Wednesday then!!"

**********

"What do you mean Jack's not here? We need the commentator!"

Even illegal races broadcasted from undisclosed locations need commentators. Jack Pistachio, beloved Hoverbike race announcer whose face and real identity were not known, had been arrested the previous day. Luckily, no one knew the location of any given race until they could just make it there on time, or about two hours beforehand, so with any luck today's festivities would not be… "interrupted".

"He got caught last night… but we need someone to take over announcements then," 'Arachnid', of the competitors, complained.

"Someone who's not doing anything," Sean complained, glaring at Ly and Ni as he did so.

Ly snarled at him. "Excuse me mister, I'm the pit crew!!"

"I'll do it!" Niban chirped happily, popping a ginger snap into her mouth. The others stared dumbfounded for a moment, then sighed as they realized she was the only available person; the 8 competitors and their respective pit crews were the only others present to reduce likelihood of discovery… Niban was supposedly the pit crew for Sean, since Ly worked for both him and Eri, and it was the only way to sneak her in. Everyone of course knew she never did much of anything, but they also knew she was very unlikely to get caught and that she had no reason to turn them in.

"Fine, but you'll need some voice scrambling or something, you've got a famous and recognizable voice and we don't need you getting caught by voice recognition software like Jack was," Ly suggested.

"We don't?" Sean said, earning himself a thwack.

"I'm not THAT annoying. Well, most the time," Niban pouted. "I got just the thing though. Karibi!!" she giggled, pulling the little black ball from her pocket. "Hi Linty!" The strange little thing suddenly had eyes appear on it, and it squeaked happily.

"What exactly is that?"

An electronic voice responded "Karibi. Electronic pet designed and programmed by Midnight. Name: Linty. Owner: name undisclosed for privacy. Status: happy, tired, ready to serve."

"Riiiiiiiight."

Niban grinned. "Linty, I need you to act as a voice changer for me so I can do this broadcast."

"Righteo!"

"Insanity over with, can we start the race?"


	2. Risky Business

**Gundam R**

**Risky Business**

**_Lyra Kamiya_**

"This is your new announcer, Niban Wi-er, a, Maxwell, broadcasting live from an undisclosed location!! Today's championship race is about to go underway! Favorite to win is 'White Rabbit', but the others may provide a good round of competition. And I personally, hope Midnight wins!!" The White Rabbit's pit crew yelled back something about biased announcers and a few other things that started with the letter B. "Oh, beep yourself! Racers! On your mark, get set, GO!"

The eight Hoverbikes took off around the outside of the donut shaped colony. The course was to go around the outside 3 times, then the inside just as many. First one to the finish—or last one alive, as the case may be—was the winner.

"The White Rabbit has an early lead, followed quickly by Charger, and a tied-as-usual Valkyrie and Zeus. Bringing up the rear is Warp Turtle…" the race continued at illogical speeds as Ni rattled off her commentary. "Midnight is pulling up fast as they complete their first lap!" she chirped happily. The black HB ridden by Midnight, aka Mayonaka, zoomed past the three who'd been battling for second and approached the bright white one quickly. He remained on his tail for the next lap and a half, until they began making the curve towards the laps round the inner side of the Colony.

Suddenly, as they reached a spoke connecting the Colony to its center, he dropped and swerved sharply up on the opposite side of the White Rabbit. In shock, he swerved as well and went crashing into the spoke. In a bright flash that would have also generated a large explosive noise were it not for the vacuum of space, pieces of his HB hurling in all directions as he drifted, unconscious if alive at all, away from the blast. "Looks like the black fox took out the White Rabbit and is now officially in the lead!" Another snarl from the quickly fleeing-towards-their-pilot pit crew caused her to quickly add, "but as its only halfway through the race, it could be anyone's race!!"

The next two laps went relatively smoothly… The Cheshire Cat, at one point, miscalculated and slammed into a spoke, quickly managing to get started once more. It had been quickly apparent that he would not be catching back up to the others as Warp Turtle and Arachnid sped past, so he'd returned to his pit crew instead.

But races were never this easy, nor this subtle. Ordinarily, riders behaved almost as if they wanted to be caught, be it by the next racer back or by the police. A light started flashing from Niban's broadcast console… one of the scouts has spotted a police ship, of some sort, on its way towards the race. "ATTENTION! THEY ARE ON TO US!" Most likely cause of the discovery was the earlier explosive end to White Rabbit's spot in the race.

With nothing left to loose, Zeus and Valkyrie, ridden by Sean and Eri respectively, pushed their engines to maximum and caught up with charger. They kept along each side of him for the next half a lap… almost no race left… all three were fast approaching Midnight as well. With a signal no others saw, Valkyrie suddenly dropped back and went around the other side of Zeus, as he in turn swerved erratically, forcing Charger into a docking bay as they followed the Colony's curve back to the outer circumference. The two had performed the stunt many times before, but never this late in the race, as it normally took a good amount of time to regain their speed.

Both sped on towards the finish line, managing to somehow pass Midnight, their engines at or possibly above maximum speed as they swerved in S curves to keep the "black fox" behind them. In a flash it was over, Valkyrie beating Zeus only by the length of his bike and Midnight barely behind them. The other two intact racers crossed the line soon afterwards, Niban shouting hyper and somewhat biased commentary onto the 'waves as the others celebrated… 

But no sooner had their engines come to a pause than flashing lights appeared from nowhere. Everyone hopped onto the nearest vehicle they could, Niban jumping into her transport and Lynna hopping on behind Eri, as the police ships appeared from no where. A bust like this was one to be cherished, and the fleeing racers couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for those who had wiped out during the race; the only way they would be able to get away in time would be to leave their damaged and often prized Hoverbikes behind. A shout of terror went through the intercom of 2 of the racers and three, albeit one of them long gone, pit-crew members. Sean's motor had stalled out, and as the others scattered away he was left, hovering above the Colony's outer surface, exposed for probable capture.

"Guys! They're comin' after me! Do something!!!"

Help never came. No sooner had Valkyrie turned around than had a ship cornered Sean to the point that it would be suicide to go back in after him. Mayonaka was too far gone already to see and had probably turned his speaker off before the race even began, but Niban had heard and started shouting something about bail money before she went out of range. Eri quickly turned back around towards the escape and told him to rip apart the communicator, now, so the others wouldn't be caught as well. The static followed by silence that came through made them guess that he had heard them.

Sean Zeus, another racer, and three pit crew members were captured at that race. Another racer decided he'd sooner take his own life than be caught, and slammed his hardly working HB into the nearest cruiser. He was unconscious upon impact, and dead before he reached the office.

Everyone always said illegal racing was an exciting sport. No one ever said it wasn't dangerous.

***********

The next afternoon one overly giddy Niban Winner, the system's most recognizable 16 year old, wandered into the local police office. She explained, in many uncertain terms, that she'd found out the night before that one of her friends was an illegal racer. She went on through an entire monologue of how ashamed she was of him, she couldn't believe someone she'd trusted as much as him could have done such a thing, and then told them she was there to bail him out. The police stared at her, scanned through their records, and looked back up at her with a look that only said "you have to be kidding me".

"Seems your 'good friend' here has three previous arrests. All for illegal racing."

She was prepared for this. "What the beep?!" she said in well rehearsed yet improve shock. "I am going to have to slap him one or something…" she started nibbling on a ginger snap as she continued her acting. "What's his bail at? His dad will *kill* him if he finds out he was in containment…"

"500x," the cop replied.

"Er, ok…" she dug through her many pockets and smiled when she found what she was looking for… she handed them a charge card, her name, photo, and several DNA and other non-replicable forms of identification on it. She set her hand on the IDpad before her and lined her eye up for corneal scan when she was asked to do each thing. As the richest, most recognizable, and most probably insane girl in the system she was well accustomed to the routine. "Everything's in order I'm guessin'?"

"That it is… but you're underage. We can't let you get him out past his third arrest without an 18-or-older's signature."

She winced, then suggested she could pay double the bail. They still refused. She suggested triple. Still no. She suggested quadruple, with a good amount of that going to each of them individually. They paused, considering this, then asked her why she wanted him out of there so badly. Had she been anyone else, she probably would have started some false sob story about him being the father of her unborn child. Instead she shrugged, "He owes me a box of ginger snaps," stuffed one of said snack food into her mouth, and walked out with a sigh. Her happy manor decreased a wee bit, quite abnormally, as she reached her three friends waiting outside. "They wouldn't let him out."

"Plan B?" Mayonaka shrugged, indifferent.

"What is plan B?" Eri questioned. "I never seem to like plan Bs."

"Bust him out," Lynna said as if it were obvious.

Silence befell the others. "How?" Niban finally asked. "And how many things get to go boom?"

"I don't know… but I do think we might be able to use 'Wing'," Ly replied, grinning slyly.

"I already don't like plan B…" Eri sighed. "Or maybe it's just that I know she came up with a better plan than me."

A/n: sounds odd for a show-like series like this… but I invite you all to vote on the subject of who, of the five main characters, should be leader. Results will be up with chapter 5, voting is open until then.


	3. Burning Eve

You have Niban to thank for me ever getting this up. For me even working on it. And you have my mom to thank for the long delay. Thank you.

****

Gundam R  
3: Burning Eve  
Lyra Bardock

Ordinarily the situation would have been simple to remedy. Simply get Sean's parents, or one of the others' parents, to sign for him. Except Sean's father was somewhere near Mercury, his mother hadn't been seen for years, and the others didn't have any useful parents. Niban's mother hated the girl, and her father had been killed by her older brother… Who had died when the father shot back. Lynna's dad could be convinced to sign it once drunk enough, but his signature never matched his standard one when he was that out. Eri's parents had thrown him into the job market when he was 16, and told him not to come back looking for favors, so they were out too. And Mayonaka was from an orphanage, and had no guardian.

Not that any of that mattered with the other minor detail that the one signing was required to be the legal guardian of Sean.

Thus, their plan was simple. Crash into the back of the jail—nicely located on Europa as opposed to a colony, and thus not the same amount of risk—and then get him out before anyone noticed. No one get hurt, except maybe Sean from falling debris, and no one would be able to track him down, since, as the monitor Niban had seen revealed, they still thought his name was Shawn Johnson, the fake name he used every time he got arrested. Another wards, the name that had all his criminal record on it. Meaning this whole thing could have been avoided if he'd just admitted to being Sean Zeus.

This would have involved problems with his parents though… Currently they only had two problems. One was that they had to put the plan into operation before they did get Sean's real identity. It was upon this moment that the others had found out that, while he couldn't install new parts that well, Eri was quite probably better than Ly at fixing things in a fix. The second was who was going to fly it to put the plan into operation.

Automatically Eri had been involuntarily volunteered… he was the best pilot this side of the asteroid belt, everyone knew that, but there was the matter of the confusing controls in the century old cockpit.

"If nothing else, I'm at least not piloting it because Sean would kill me for touching his RS without his permission," he added when Niban had brought up the previous point.

"See? It's hazardous to his health, too! I think that Mayo-kun should do it!!" she paused for a moment and had an intrigued yet disgusted look on her face, an expression the others had learned to fear, before the standard response came from the wall behind her.

"DON'T call me –kun," he stated calmly, stepping forward to meet the others.

"And I couldn't care one way or the other. I understand the controls, I've studied the blueprints enough… I could fly it myself, or teach one of you just as easily." He went back to his standard silence to ponder his statement. "But I doubt any of you are strong enough to use those controls. So I'll do it, but seeing as how this is your friend not mine, it'd better get me some kind of discount while you're building DarkFox."

"DarkFox?! What the blazes it that?" Ly complained, mostly to break the monotone he tended to create.

"Its what I plan to call my Gundam. Is that a problem?" he responded calmly, but the gaze that fell on Lynna should have burned through her like a laser.

"No," she winced in response. She whimpered lightly as he walked back away and sat in the corner.

"Back to work…?" Eri suggested, again to break the monotone.

"And… to Ginger Snaps!!" Niban grinned before running off to continue where she'd been working earlier. Another whimper came from the other two who actually cared.

*********

Sven opened his eyes slowly as a rock dropped on his head. A stone, actually. He looked at curiously before realizing it was a piece of the jail… the jail he was a guard at. And had fallen asleep in, next to Sean's cell. He wondered for a brief moment why a piece of the ceiling had just connected with his head, and started to yell for the other guard…

But by the time "hey" left his mouth, it was too late.

The side wall of Sean's corner jail cell erupted open, an enormous metal foot shoving the stone and mortar aside effortlessly. Sean blinked as fresh air and dwindling sunlight hit him, then started yelling as he recognized the foot to belong to his Gundam.

"What the hell is SOMEONE doing in my Gundam?!"

"Wonderful thanks," Mayo snarled back through Wing's speakers. Sean blinked, realizing his rival was not in the cockpit, and shrugged before making a run for it. Sven, acting on instinct, pulled his gun out and began shooting at the mechanical thing that was ripping the jail to shreds, ignoring the rapidly escaping inmate and the other prisoners' pleas for help. The other guard, on impulse, began doing the same… Mayonaka grumbled something under his breath, speakers off, and, not wanting to waste ammo, simply slammed his fist into the remaining roof over the guards' heads, crushing them both.

Sean took the opportunity and began scrambling up his Gundam's leg, screaming for Mayo to open the hatch. Sirens blazed over the horizon as the hatch closed again, Sean fwumping down in the back of the cockpit, as the thrust fired and Wing took off, quickly escaping Europa's atmosphere. The wreckage of the jail slowly went up in flames as the electrical system was severed by the collapsing walls…

Sven never knew what killed him.

**********

"I would have expected you not to kill anyone!"

"I would have expected you to kill them all. They're witnesses, after all!" Niban chattered, in stark contradiction to Eri's previous comment. She was more hyper than usual, if that was at all possible, and after visiting her great-grandfather on the Maxwell side, she seemed to have killing things on her mind.

"Well, quit expecting," Mayo snarled. "Start to work on the other Gundams. Sean, come with me, we'll have to repaint Wing now since they'll be looking for it."

Ly froze and looked up from her blueprint. "Oohhhhh shite. I didn't realize that before, they'll be seeking it out, and probably checking every large hanger or shop in the orbit first…"

"And we're in what, the third largest hanger/shop combo in the orbit?" Sean said sarcastically.

"Actually, that's exactly where we are."

"Oh."

"…Kuso. NIBAN! We need a new local, rich girl!"

"Gotcha!" Ni shoved her bag back into her pocket and started for the phone. Mayo sighed and headed the other way to start programming the cloak he'd partially installed.

Sean flipped on the television, telling it to turn to the News channel. The other two who had still been unoccupied joined him and together they stared as the top headlines began… and pictures of Wing flashed across the screen.

"…Feared to be related to the brewing conflicts in near-sun territory, a 'mobile suit', similar to one of the 'Gundams' seen in the war of 195, attacked a prison on Europa late last night-"

"Couldn't you bunch of come up with a quieter way to break me-"

"No, Sean, not before your parents would have found out."

"-The images you see now were captured on surveillance. Two prisoners and one guard were injured, and another guard was killed. One more prisoner, captured at an illegal race earlier this week, is missing and presumed dead or escaped."

"Oooo, I'm famous."

"Shut up and let us watch."

"It is feared more attacks will follow, and thus a reward of 1000 units is being offered for information leading to the capture of this craft or its pilot."

"Damn't," Ly kicked at the wall for punctuation before yelling for the TV to mute. She then stormed off to help Mayo with the wiring, ignoring the slightly dumbstruck other males.

"NOW who's not letting us watch, huh Ly?" Sean taunted after her, earning a raised middle finger from the retreating girl and a sigh from Eri, who then had the TV unmute as the story changed.

"In other news, Prince of Earth Alan Yuy-Shintai has officially vanished. Extensive searching has been accomplished and no evidence of a kidnapping or assassination has been found. Stay tuned for further information."

Eri sighed and re-muted the television, looking at where the blueprints for his and the other Gundams lay. "Why do I have a feeling this whole things gonna turn into a war?" Sean grumbled, motioning to tapes of an attack near Venus. Eri shrugged and continued to eye the blueprints.

__

War…? …That's what these were originally designed for…

**********

Niban waved to some of the bearded guys carrying large boxes, skipping off to go find more ginger snaps, or Mayo, whichever she found first. A rather large shipment of Gundanium had arrived at the "undisclosed location" that Niban had found for them to move their operations to. Sean stood there, tapping his foot, looking unsure about the large amount of the rare and illegal material.

"Sooooo… you DID make sure that they thought this was going to Earth, right?" The guy standing beside him, sipping a coffee, nodded.

"We did everything we could to make sure this looked like it was going to that rebellion going on down at Mercury," he confirmed in a thick Arabic accent.

"Ahh… perfect," Sean grinned. Ly made a grunting noise and wacked him with a wrench lightly.

"Quit acting like you know what you're talking about, baka," she grumbled and wandered towards where Eri was helping stack boxes.

"Tempermental, that one," the Arabic guy chuckled and wiped off his beard, then walked off to return to his work. Sean glanced around, looked nervously towards Mayo, working on a control system, then winced at the sight of a braid disappearing behind one of the ships. He turned his attention to the opposite direction, where Eri and Ly were digging through some boxes that contained parts instead of Gundanium. Eri popped a box and sniffed curiously as Sean walked towards them. He glanced into the crate, looking a bit irritated at its contents.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me…"

"What?"

He pointed into the box, they both sighed, then, in perfect unison and exactly on cue, they both yelled. "NI-BAKA! KITTE!" came the echoing, irritated, Japanese phrase of idiot and demanding for her to come there. She reappeared from behind another bunch of crates, intrigued, then grinned wildly as she realized what they must have found.

"Oh!! My ginger snap shipment!" she babbled enthusiastically, rushing over to join her now further disgruntled friends. "I thought it should be in here somewhere…" she continued, peering into the box. "Yep, yep, one weeks worth, right here!"

"One… w-week?" Eri stuttered, blinking at the overwhelming amount of cookies. "For you and what army?"

"Breath in… breath out…" Ly grumbled beside him, before going on the move again. Anything, anything at all, would be less irking.

"No! They're all mine! You can't have ANY!!!"

Considerably so.


	4. Tribulations and Atrocities

****

Gundam R

4 - Tribulations and Atrocities

__

Lyra Bardock

Five months later, five RS, know only to their owners to be Gundam, floated silently below Jupiter's narrow rings. The only break in the serenity had come earlier, when one of them had decided to use their scythe to chop an asteroid in half with what would have, within an atmosphere, made a quite satisfying explosion. Now though, all was calm, and rheir destination glimmered ahead of them, a donut shaped mix of metal alloys, glass, rubber, plastic and other human modified materials. It and the five RS looked strangely out of place in the sheer blackness and raw naturality of Jupiter behind them, its moons scattered, moving slowly, on the horizon of the gas giant and everywhere in between, and the various dust and asteroids that were everywhere, yet oddly organized. Io, looking like a 'modern' painting gone wrong, hung before them, with that donut shape, the traditional shape of a colony, orbiting it at a noticeable pace. Quiet, perfect, idealistic, pristine… something from a science fiction movie, the quiet moments before an important discovery or revelation happens…

Or the calm before the storm…

The people in the colony would be up in another two or so hours, just a normal June day. Back on Earth the first hints of light would be threatening the night, but none of the racers knew this as they flew towards the colony… They'd never been on the near-sun side of the asteroid belt… none of them knew what it was to be on a planet that was by nature above 5 degrees Celsius… None of them knew a life that wasn't surrounded by the void and wonder of space, knew a world that once wondered if they could leave that home ground, knew what it was like to not have a planet half the size of the sun looming over them every day of their lives… And at the moment, none of them cared that they did not know this. At the moment all they could think about was the race ahead of them.

Perhaps, just perhaps, if they'd cared about something other than the race, they would have noticed the ship heading towards the colony they had their sights on. Most likely they wouldn't of, but had they, they would have been the only ones remotely capable of stopping what was about to happen. The word remotely is stressed however… With the conflicts being contained to only inner solar territory, no one could have ever imagined what was about to happen. The last of the main ring no longer above them, they fired their thrusters again to speed them towards the colony…

Which, with only a small flash of red light to warn them, exploded before their very eyes.

"N-Niban… p-p-please-se t-tell me th-that you didn-n't press any b-buttons again right th-then…" Eri stuttered out over their radio system after they'd all had a moment to gawk in slow, shocked realization.

"No, it wasn't her," Ly reported breathlessly.

"All of you, turn on your televisions," Mayo said, calm as ever, somewhat commanded. They did as they were told and were sent into another round of shock as the TV sputtered, then showed another colony as it imploded, the time showing only a few minutes earlier… They hardly heard the newscaster as she listed off the colonies that had been destroyed so far… nearly 20… The one they'd just seen wasn't on the list…

"What's going on?" came a choked whisper of confusion from Sean, who's shaking image came up alongside those of his other friends on Eri's viewscreen. He tried to respond and just shook his head slowly and turned off Niban's screen, a split second before she began to complain about large things blowing up as a result of someone besides her. The image that had just been displayed was too much for him, and most the others… The colony that they'd all grown up on appeared on the list, followed quickly by the one they'd just witnessed the destruction of. Directly following its addition to the list, came a video of its final moments.

He clicked off that screen as well. Ly copied the motion, and Sean watched it one more time before being willing to believe it, then got rid of that screen as well. Ly rubbed her eyes and then her image disappeared from the others' screens, and a sob escaped her before the audio cut. Sean continued to stare blankly as he tried hard to remember what it looked like to have his family all together but couldn't remember half their faces… and that he couldn't face the fact he'd never see them again. "…We're damned lucky we weren't home right then…"

"Home?" Mayo grunted, then cut off his out feeds as well, feeling no longer necessary for the moment.

"If that's what you want to call it…" Eri agreed, feeling the tears run silently down his face as he tried to get rid of the image playing an endless loop in his head… the yells of his brother and sister for his help… but he wasn't there… "…but I wasn't there…" he whispered, not realizing he'd said it aloud, never knowing that Sean stopped from continuing because of the comment. He nodded sadly before killing his video feed, breaking down slowly into the raspy, choked breathing of one who was struggling not to cry, watching Eri's eyes go blank. "…They're all… gone…"

Ly's voice cut back through the ensuing near silence. "This is gonna sound really stupid," she said, her voice strained as though she was somewhere between crying and laughing the cackle of someone who's sanity has just escaped them from overstress. "But…" Text across the news screen, still on all their screens, revealed that the rebellion was the source of the attacks, as well as a growing number of colonies that had been destroyed, as she spoke. "Does… anyone feel like fighting a war?"

"…Why not? Nothing else for us to do now," Niban said, calm for once, probably more distraught over the obvious loss of her ginger snaps than the probable one of her controlling mother.

"Yea, this seems to call for some avenging…" Sean agreed quietly, still trying to lighten the settled heavy mood.

"It's personal now…" Eri nodded, his eyes slowly regaining expression, melting into a snarl slowly.

Mayonaka turned his out feeds back on, face the same as ever. "In."

"…Lets use these machines for what they were built for then…"

At GMT 3:45 on June 7, AC 338, the first of 60 colonies was destroyed around the planets of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. One was destroyed every minute for the next hour. IO0045930 was one of the last, witnessed by 5 people, the only 5 people who survived the attacks. The next day, they reported themselves dead, saying that they had been on their own colony when it was attacked.

A man claiming to be the leader of the rebellion said that this was their way of saying that everything was too complex, that dangers can happen and are harder to avoid in the outer solar system, and that everything should be returned to Earth. They would not be satisfied until all these technological advancements had been stopped, all the colonies had been hurtled into the sun or out of the solar system, and the human population was back below 10 billion, what had been figured as the maximum the Earth could support.

He then said he was going to cut the bullshit and tell the truth. They wanted to rule the human race, pure and simple, and the confined space of Earth was the easiest place to do so. Anyone who questioned his faction's authority would be lynched. Oh, and by the way, to see to it this happened… They had Prince Yuy-Shintai there and held captive. They even showed that he was there. Oh goodie.

"Have I mentioned before that I hate these radicalist control freak groups?"

"No… but we all do now."


End file.
